Purely for the mental exercise, let’s imagine that during the presidency of George W. Bush it came to light that the IRS singled out MoveOn.org or Planned Parenthood or some other liberal group for special scrutiny.

Miss Campbell was a sweet old lady. She was among the last of a large cohort of American women. The Miss Campbells of the mid-20th century had three things in common. They never married. They unapologetically retained the title ‘Miss’. And they taught school. These women once constituted a sizable plurality of American school teachers. By the late 1960s, they were nearing the end of their careers and were being replaced by younger, married, fertile...